Agricultural Land Use in the European Union: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

Agriculture in the European Union (EU) is moving into a ‘post-productivist transition’. From a period of maximizing food output, farmers are being redirected to reduce their production, provide society with ‘environmental goods’ and create a more ‘sustainable’ agriculture. The motivations for this transition can be traced to the removal of food surpluses, control of the cost of subsidies to agriculture, and repair of environmental damage associated with productivist agriculture. This paper offers a perspective on the agricultural land-use implications of this redirection of EU agriculture by examining agricultural land use in the past (productivism), the present (post-productivist transition) and the future (post-productivism). Attention is directed to three changing land use dimensions: from intensification to extensification; from concentration to dispersion; and from specialisation to diversification. There are national, regional and local variations in these dimensions, but overall a more diversified land use structure is emerging within the EU. Non-food crops (including bio-fuel), forestry, set-aside, nature conservation and recreation are the main rural, rather than agricultural, land uses increasing in importance. Future rural land use trends will revolve around three processes: the extent of ‘surplus’ farmland in the EU, global competition in markets for food, and global climatic change. Much depends on the application of technological progress in the genetic engineering of crops and livestock, the international competitiveness of regional agricultural systems, and the international agricultural response to global climatic change.